


Forbidden Fruit

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 18:10:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14338164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: A man has been found with his throat cut





	Forbidden Fruit

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2018 Sentinel Bingo prompt 'forbidden fruit'

Forbidden Fruit

by Bluewolf

The call to 911 came from a woman who was almost incoherent. The elderly woman who answered the call needed all her experience to calm the woman down and get an address.

The call went to Major Crime - a man found dead in his living room, his throat cut. Jim Ellison answered the call, so, after collecting his partner who had gone for coffee for them, he headed off in response to it.

A patrol car had reached the scene first, and one of its crew was standing at the door when Jim and Blair arrived.

Jim didn't know the officer but, predictably, Blair did. "Hello, Vic."

"Hello, Blair. This is a nasty one."

"Most murders are," Blair said. "We understand the wife found the body?"

"Yes. Beth - " naming his partner - "is with her. But unless Beth has managed to calm her down, I doubt you'll get anything useful from her."

Blair nodded, and he and Jim went in.

"You'd better be the one to speak to her," Jim murmured, and Blair knew Jim was right. As they walked into the hallway, Jim said, "This way," and headed towards the door furthest from the front door.

It was actually open, and even Blair was aware of the sobbing coming from the room.

Inside it, Beth Whinley was standing, one hand resting comfortingly on the shoulder of the sobbing woman sitting beside the table.

Beth glanced around as they entered the room - a kitchen with a dining table and three chairs round it. "Hello, Blair - Detective Ellison," she murmured. "This is Donna Fairborne."

Blair moved forward, murmuring, "Hello, Beth," as he did. He went down on one knee in front of the sobbing woman, reached out and took one of her hands in a gentle grasp.

She looked at him, and swallowed a sob.

"I'm Blair - Detective Sandburg," he said softly. "I understand you found your husband? Had you been out? You found him when you came home?"

She nodded again. Beth caught his eye and nodded to three bags, still unpacked, sitting on a unit beside a sink.

"You were shopping?"

Donna nodded again, clearly relieved that she could answer him without speaking. Unfortunately she was going to have to verbalize her next answers.

"How long were you out?"

"A-about t-t-two... "

"Two hours?" He gave her the final word, and she nodded again.

Blair looked at the third chair. "Who else lives here? A son?"

She shook her head. "D-d-d-"

"Daughter?" He tried to assess Donna's age, and decided she was probably in her mid thirties. "She at school?" A nod. "How old is she?"

"T-tw..."

"Twelve?" Another nod.

"What school?" He couldn't begin to guess.

"High."

Jim was already pulling out his cell phone.

***

Blair asked a few more questions, then they left Donna with Beth and headed for the living room.

Forensics had arrived by then and Serena's team was bustling around. Jim went straight to the body - almost. The police photographer was busy, and Jim held back to let him finish. Meanwhile Blair was looking around the room, and frowning slightly.

"Chief?"

"Why do I get the impression that this guy knew his killer?"

Jim followed Blair's look around the room. "I see what you mean. If he'd caught someone breaking in, you'd expect to see signs of a struggle."

"Okay, Detective, I've finished." The photographer was putting his camera back in its case.

Jim crossed to the body, Blair following. 'Throat cut' was something of an exaggeration; it was a stab wound that had punctured the carotid artery. If he had been found immediately it might have been possible to save him, but as it was he had bled to death. The carpet around him was soaked in blood; a trail of it led from a couch. There was a phone on a table he had clearly been trying to get to before he collapsed. Beside the couch was a blood-covered paper knife that was almost certainly the murder weapon. Even as Jim looked at it, Serena reached down and slipped it into an evidence bag.

"We'll have to get fingerprints for everyone in the family," Serena said, and Jim nodded.

There was little else they could do. Serena went with them back into the kitchen, where they explained to Donna that Serena needed to get the family's fingerprints to eliminate them from the investigation and she let Serena take hers.

She was still close to hysterics.

The door opened and a girl came in, followed by two policewomen. The girl crossed to Donna. "Mom?"

"D-did they t-t-tell you...?"

"Yes - and Mom, it couldn't have happened to a more deserving person." The girl's voice was cold.

"Iona, he's... he was... y-your f-father!"

"Pity he didn't remember that!"

Blair moved forward. "Iona? What are you saying?"

"He... since the day after my fifth birthday... I didn't like what he did to me, but I didn't know what he was doing... until... we started getting sex education at school last week... "

"He was sexually abusing you?" Blair asked very gently.

She nodded.

Blair took a deep breath. "And today?"

"After Mom went out - she goes out early when she's shopping - he grabbed me. He's always said before that he loved me. But this time he said 'forbidden fruit is always the sweetest' and I realized... Even after I grew up, he'd never let me go. I grabbed the paper knife and hit him with it, then ran. Went to school."

"No!" Donna wailed. No..."

Young though she was, they had to arrest Iona, and an ambulance took Donna to hospital.

There couldn't be a happy ending. Donna had a total nervous breakdown and ended up permanently in psychiatric care. The court decided that Iona had acted in self defense, and she ended up in foster care, where at least she was free from abuse.

But it was clear that for the rest of her life she would never, ever, be able to trust a man.


End file.
